Beginning of Essay
Annotations from Frederick Douglass By far the large part of the slaves know as little of their age as horses know of theirs, and it is the wish of most masters within my knowledge to keep their slaves thus ignorant. [Ch. 1, p. 39.] ‘Ignorant’ is the key word ....

Middle of Essay
.... Captain Anthony’s daughter to Frederick or the beatings and rape of Frederick’s aunt. In any case, there was no mention of it, especially to Frederick. He was not allowed to have this kind of knowledge. His master feared that if Frederick knew of his background, he would be deemed useless as a slave. Knowledge was a thing valued by slaves and feared by their masters. To those songs I trace my first glimmering conception of the dehumanizing character of slavery. [Ch. 2, p. 47.] Douglass is speaking here of the songs he used to hear on Colonel Lloyd’s plantation. When he was a slave he was more sensitive to this music than any other parts of slav ....